Computer turns off a few seconds after boot. Replaced PSU and RAM with no effect. Running out of ideas. Help!

djmeowth9

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Sep 21, 2016
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10,510
My computer is an Acer Predator G3-605, a prebuilt machine from 2014. It has an Intel Core i7-4770k, 12 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1070. Runs Windows 10.

Three months ago, my PC stopped working. It had been acting oddly for about a month prior to that, randomly restarting during heavy gaming. One day it turned off in the middle of a game. When I tried turning it back on, it would power on - lights would come on and fans would spin - and then beep twice before turning off. Nothing would appear on my monitor. The only thing I could do to make it act a little differently was to remove the RAM entirely - then it would emit one long sustained beep and remain powered on until I cut the power. But that wasn't all that helpful.

I asked for help online. I was told it was probably my PSU. So I bought a new one and hooked it up. Nothing - power on, two beeps, power off. I asked for help online again and I was told it was probably my RAM. So I cleaned my old RAM's contacts and, when that didn't work, bought new RAM. Nothing changed - power on, two beeps, power off. I asked for help online yet again and I was told to breadboard my motherboard - take it out of the case, hook up the PSU to the CPU and motherboard, and use a screwdriver to jump-start the machine. Same results - with one stick of new RAM it turned on, beeped twice, and turned back off. With no RAM it turned on, did one long beep, and stayed on. Information on my motherboard BIOS's beep codes is scarce, but I've found a couple mentions that two short beeps means a 'Memory Parity Error'. It appears that getting new memory did not solve this memory parity error.

I was in the middle of trying every stick of RAM I had, both old and new, in every possible slot when my PC stopped turning on entirely. Can't start it with the screwdriver method, can't start it when I put it back in the case and hit the power button. My new PSU came with a self-test adapter thing and it still works with that, so I guess maybe the problem is the motherboard? What if I buy a new motherboard and the problem turns out to be the CPU? At this point I'm pretty much building a PC piece by piece.

I'm just not good with hardware. I'm out of ideas. I don't know what else I can do besides just replace every single part of my PC, and that's too expensive for me right now. Where do I go from here? Do I buy a new motherboard? I don't know anything about motherboards. I think my case requires a smaller motherboard than average. Do I get a new case too? How do I move my CPU? Am I going to have to deal with thermal paste? That's terrifying.

I'm very frustrated. I wish it was easier to find out what was wrong. Computers are great when they work, but when things go wrong there are like a dozen different points of failure inside the machine. And, at least in my case, no way to diagnose what's wrong.

Thanks for reading.

 

djmeowth9

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Sep 21, 2016
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Thanks for the reply! Yes, I reset the CMOS battery about a dozen times over the last few months.

And currently I have the motherboard on a piece of cardboard with only the CPU and motherboard plugged into the PSU, and one stick of RAM. I don't have my monitor connected, since I don't have my video card slotted in.
 

Does your motherboard not have an HDMI video out on the back panel? The Intel i7-4770k has built in graphics.
 

djmeowth9

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Sep 21, 2016
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Unfortunately, my motherboard only has VGA out, and my monitor doesn't have a VGA port.

Regardless, even with my video card and monitor plugged in, I still got nothing on my screen and the computer still turned off a few seconds after turning on and beeping twice.
 

I am thinking that you motherboard may boot properly, or at least boot into the BIOS, without the video card installed.
 

djmeowth9

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Sep 21, 2016
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Well, it's worth a try, but first I need to actually get the machine to power on again. I took out the CMOS battery again and hopefully when I put it back in, it'll turn on. Then I guess I'll try to find a VGA monitor somewhere so I can see if it'll boot with that. Thanks for your help so far.